This Saturday, 12 July, socialist teachers from all over Britain will be meeting in London. In the article below IMG teachers point out why the problems facing them are important to the whole of the working class, and can only be solved by the united action of the labour movement in defence of education spending.
Two years ago, in 1973, schools in London were short of teachers. Now local authorities are planning to cut back on staff as part of the education cuts. The prospect of teacher unemployment is becoming a real one.
QUOTAS CUT Local education authorities operate a quota system which is a voluntary method of rationing the supply of teachers between authorities.
On the basis of quotas set by the Department of Education and Science, at least 20 per cent of local authorities expect to be below quota.
In addition many authorities employ off quota' teachers - mostly part timers and married women doing temporary teaching jobs. About 30 per cent of all local authorities are cutting back in this area. Essex will cut back from 550 to 350, Warwickshire from 300 to 134, and so on.
These redundancies are the products of Tory and Labour cutbacks amounting to £266 million. Along with its move towards a statutory incomes policy, the Labour Government is also preparing for further cuts in educational spending of around £500 million over the next four years. These cutbacks are not always immediately visible but they are just as much a cut in the real wages of the working class as a direct cut in wages; part and parcel of Labour's so-called Social Contract.
CLASS FIGHT But although the working class is losing out, other people are benefiting. Up to 50 per cent of local authority spending goes to pay interest on money borrowed from banks. Educational suppliers, who often monopolise various items such as books and paper, have raised their prices by as much as 100 per cent in the last two years. It is not simply that less money will be spent on education, but also that what is spent will buy less.
These attacks on the education system, housing and health require a united response from the whole working class.
Teachers, however, suffer from professionalist ideas. The 'teacher knows best' approach has isolated them from their real allies in the working class. This attitude represents an obstacle which has to be destroyed both by teachers and by the working class if the cuts are to be effectively fought. It will not be done by the Communist Party, whose leading teacher Max Morris reintorced such attitues by authorising the attacks on teachers in London who struck in support of the Shrewsbury building workers. Nor will it be helped by the suggestions of another CP member. Colin Yardley, President of Inner London Teachers, who has called for rate increases to offset cuts in Government spending.
DIVISIVE
At the Easter annual conference the Labour Party right and the CP executive members opposed the Working Women's Charter as a divisive issue, fearful that Catholic members would leave the union if it supported abortion. Sam Fisher, CP member and executive memHammersmith Hospital, in West London, was picketed last week against the lack of abortion and nursery facilities. The picket, which was organised by the West Lon don branch of the National Abortion Campaign, attracted more that 200* people with support from many London NAC groups, Hammersmith, Brent and Westminster Trades Councils, ASTMS (West London Medical) and the hospital's Joint Shop Stewards' Committee.
The difficulty of obtaining an abortion at the Hammersmitn is well known, due to the reactionary consultants who decide the policy in the department of Dostetrics asynaecology. The Nursery & Abortion Campaign Committee in the hospital along with NAC, are demanding the immediate formation of an out-patient series for all staff, patients and visitors.
The campaign is also demanding that only staff willing to work in this clinic should be employed by the Health AuthThey are calling for the dismissal of and sanctions against consultants who refuse to co-operate with these moves. ber, called Charter supporters 'the lunatic fringes' whilst another leading CP member has since referred to Charter supporters as hysterical feminists'. In a union in which two thirds of the membership are women, and women are the lowest paid (despite the myth of equal pay) and will be the first to get the push as a result of the cuts, the Communists Party's policy divides and weakens the union by failing to fight for women's rights, action to resolve the capitalist crisis. and splits teachers from the rest of the working class by taking a sectoral approach to fighting the education cuts.
ACTION COMMITTEES To create the necessary united response to the cuts, teachers should aim to establish broadly based conferences and inter-union action committees to take up the fight against redundancies as a focus for the campaign. At the same time teachers have a pay deal under arbitration. By linking up with those sections of the working class who oppose Healey's proposed 10 per cent ceiling on wages they can both defend their own living standards -against the Government and their own executive's inevitable 'reluctant' acceptance of 10 per cent - and help develop the fight against One of the central debates at the Socialist Teachers Conference will be around the policies which teachers and workers must fight for to protect wages and public spending HAN IN PO On Monday the Daily Mirror gave striking confirmation of the way in which the NHS is sliding down the drain. Its report diagnosed the healthe service as being 'gravely ill... and sinking fast.
Nearly half of Britain's hospitals were built before 1891. Another quarter are more than 100 years old. This has led to situations like against inflation. The adoption by the confer ence and a fight in the NUT for all wages and expenditure to be protected against inflation by automatic increases (a sliding scale) can be a big step forward.
At the Conference itself, teachers from the International Marxist Group will be arguing that the working class needs a programme of We believe that the conference can play a modest but important role in beginning a discussion about how socialists in education can integrate their struggle into the overall struggle of the working class and strengthen the possibilities for imposing a socialist solution.
SOCIALIST TEACHERS CONFERENCE Open conference of socialist teachers, 12 July.
11am-6pm at NUFTO Hall, Jockey's Fields (Holborn tube). Creche accommodation.
Tickets 50p at door. Social afterwards Supported by teachers in Radical Education;
International Marxist Group; Workers Fight;
Anarchist Workers Association; Manchester Rank & File.
-SOCIAL-SOCIAL-SOCIAL-SOCIAL-SOCIALAfter the Conference at Euston Tavern, corner of Euston Road and Judd Street. Bar extension 7.3012pm. Disco etc. Everyone welcome.
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